Garrotte

Garrotte, a form of capital punishment in use in Spain and Portugal. In former days the prisoner was strangled by means of an iron collar, which was placed round his neck and fastened to a stake at the back of the chair in which he sat. At the point where the stake and collar met there was a screw, the turning of which resulted in the contraction of the collar. Death is now inflicted by making the screw pierce the spinal marrow where it joins the brain. The term "garrotting" is applied to a kind of highway robbery, in which the robber makes his victim insensible by suddenly compressing his throat.